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Official Site of Jennifer Friess, Author of The Riley Sisters series This blog features my mildly entertaining random thoughts
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A Harley Halloweenhttps://imnotstalkingyou.com/2018/11/07/a-harley-halloween/
https://imnotstalkingyou.com/2018/11/07/a-harley-halloween/#commentsThu, 08 Nov 2018 01:02:22 +0000http://imnotstalkingyou.com/?p=5461Well, two years in a row I wanted to be Harley Quinn for Halloween and I didn’t because I didn’t want to spend the money.

I ended up making the tutu myself. It was a little cheaper that way and easier than trying to get Amazon to ship me one! Plus, I could make the colors more closely match my costume.

This year my little man designed his own costume. He is a former lumberjack who is a serial killer who kills farmers, complete with bloody ax. That is one of those foam carvable pumpkins from JoAnn Fabrics. It worked well, but I should have glued fabric or something inside of it to reinforce it, like possibly fabric. We had a breakout issue as the night went on.

]]>https://imnotstalkingyou.com/2018/11/07/a-harley-halloween/feed/1funnygurl2Jurassic Birthdayhttps://imnotstalkingyou.com/2018/08/10/jurassic-birthday/
https://imnotstalkingyou.com/2018/08/10/jurassic-birthday/#commentsFri, 10 Aug 2018 12:12:29 +0000http://imnotstalkingyou.com/?p=5446If you remember last week, we left off with me having a semi-nicer backyard and wanting to find a way to showcase and share it with my closest friends. I thought of making an event called “We-Got-Our-Garage-Painted-We-Have-A-Gazebo Party”.

But my son had other ideas.

My son M always wants to have an outside birthday party. But his birthday is in the cold months of Michigan winter. So he decided we should have a summer birthday party for him. We had just seen the new movie Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. This influenced us to want a Jurassic theme. We brainstormed and my son had some very specific requests:

1. A T-Rex to greet people with a party hat.
2. A “When Dinosaurs Ruled The World” Banner

Among other things.

And I am guilty in all of this as well. I went from thinking about a Jurassic Park theme to turning our backyard into an actual Jurassic Park.

And my son just assumes all mothers have these magical abilities to make multiple large-scale decorations from scratch. He did doubt that I could get them all done in time. Shows what he knows.

Before I present the photo gallery of the completed party (Oh ya, there is a video too.), I wanted to let you know that I had two distinct seating areas with their own multi-media experience. Inside the gazebo I had the score to Jurassic Park playing on a Bluetooth speaker. On my patio I had the movie Jurassic Park playing on my laptop.

A great idea if you wanted to take it a step further is to project the movie after dark. Unfortunately, we did not have the resources for that to happen.

Enjoy!

“Welcome to Jurassic Park!”

Welcoming T-Rex. So realistic that my dog barked at it while I was making it.

Then we had to repaint our garage. It had peeling paint when we moved in 14 years ago, and well, it has only gotten worse. It was just as daunting a task as I had always feared it would be. But, it was worth it.

The garage project got sidetracked by my need for a gazebo. I have always wanted one, but this year prices dropped enough for it to become a reality. I got the model with both bug screens and privacy panels. It was so worth the money to have both. I may be referring to it as my “she shed”.

I can if I want to.

Bug-free outdoor living

Spending more time in our yard made me realize that we have neglected it for the last eight years or so, which is also how long my son has been around. He has a way of sucking up our time. In a good way.

I started doing things I haven’t done in years like weeding, trimming, putting down accent pieces. I remembered how I always hated how the dogs would disappear behind the garage late at night. I would have to go back there to get them and there was no lighting and it was so dark and scary. So, with no idea if there would be enough sun to charge them, I installed solar lights on the fence. FYI-there is enough sun to charge them, even if not fully.

The path goes to nowhere, but at least I get to use my decade’s old stepping stones again.

We even planted a few plants and a garden, except something is eating my sunflowers’ leaves, they are short even though I purchased the mammoth variety, and now my pumpkin plants are dying.

My idea is to make my backyard a little haven until we can afford a camper to go spend time in.

Next year, on to the front yard.

My backyard is pretty enough now to hold a party. But for what occasion?

See, I saw a clip on YouTube about six months ago of Billy Idol performing some familiar song of his with Miley Cyrus. I probably watched it because I really like Miley.

I was like Damn, that old man still has really good abs.

Billy Idol & Miley Cyrus performing together

Then I would hear a song of his here or there on a classic 80s rock weekend on the radio.

I was like I didn’t care much for Billy Idol back in the day, but his music is really growing on me now.

Then, well, the obsession hit me like a ton of bricks, as they usually do.

I had a dream where I was dating Billy Idol.

Old Billy, as he is now. We didn’t do anything kinky. He just held my hand and was attentive and loving.

I woke up, told my husband I had a dream I was dating Billy Idol. Then I went back to sleep.

And had ANOTHER dream. This time I was at a rich friend’s house. We were both teenagers. She had like five televisions and I had Billy Idol on all of them.

After I woke up, I was compelled to search YouTube for Billy Idol music videos. The first one I came across was “Cradle of Love.”

I didn’t listen to rock music until like 1989. The only song he had that really came out after that that was big was “Cradle of Love.” I remembered now watching it on Canada’s Video Hits.

And I realized the swanky apartment and the moving portraits in the video were VERY similar to my dream. (Damn you, subconscious.)

Cradle of Love music video

I didn’t think I knew that many Billy Idol songs.

But then I discovered the theme song to the long-ago cancelled 21 Jump Street spin-off Booker starring Richard Grieco was a Billy Idol song.

I discovered he was in the Adam Sandler movie The Wedding Singer. I promptly borrowed it from my local library.

I have been busy schooling myself on his life courtesy of Wikipedia and VH1’s Behind the Music. (FYI-One of those only implies he has one child. He actually has two. I found their pictures on the interweb I have refreshed my memory on his bad motorcycle accident. I am using YouTube to try and listen to his other songs. His more current stuff is pretty damn good. The good thing about becoming obsessed with someone who already has a full career is there is a never-ending wealth of work to mine for my own satisfaction.

And, I discovered his abs are better now then they were on some occasions in the 1980s.

Joke Break

Hahaha!

I thought my friends would be shocked that I liked Billy Idol. They were all just like “Oh ya, I’ve always liked him.”

Uh, why didn’t you give ME the memo of how awesome he was?

And this obsession too shall pass, to be replaced by another fleeting passion.

…Actually, have you ever noticed how Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer looks an awful lot like Billy Idol?

After watching the final three seasons of Buffy (and the last season of Angel), I now have a Spike obsession as well. Thank you James Marsters.

The green/blue outer ball is actually a cat toy. It was gifted to us by my mother-in-law and cousin cat Rosie.

The inner pink squeaky toy was my pup Bailey’s Valentine’s Day gift.

(I got everyone in my house a Valentine’s Day gift, including the dog, hoping that someone would give me a gift. No such luck.)

Bailey already loved the green/blue cat toy ball and played with it all the time anyway.

But I took it to the next level when I squeezed all the air out of the rubber squeaky toy and put it inside of the green/blue ball.

Bailey & her toy

Bailey pushes it, steps on it, sticks her paws and nose in there and she still CANNOT figure out how to get the pink ball out of there. I could easily remove it for her with my bad ass opposable thumbs.